Back to the future: Dublin and Derry drive the game towards a new frontier

Any onlooker will know now that to compete for al All-Ireland, they must evolve. It is still the same game. Now it is a new game. The bar has been raised.

Ciarán Mackin of Armagh in action against Shane O’Donnell of Donegal during the Allianz Football League Division 2 Final match between Armagh and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Here we go. Step through the looking glass. There is a new, rich blueprint. In Croke Park on Sunday, Dublin and Derry combined to generate the rocket fuel that powers Gaelic football further up the road.

It has been coming. Dublin and Glen both won county and club All-Ireland titles respectively with an iteration of this style. Ever since 2019, Gaelic football has stagnated. There was little evolution in the game for plausible reasons. Toss a pandemic, one brand-new and convoluted championship structure and the condensed calendar into a pot and it was always likely to combine chaotically, settling in a strange and stagnant form.